This invention relates to apparatus for packaging each prescribed number of coins of the same denomination in a neat stack, and in particular to improvements in coin packaging apparatus of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. Application Ser. No. 474,150 filed May 28, 1974, by M. Ushio et al and assigned to the instant assignee. Even more particularly, the invention deals with means for automatic adjustment of some operating parts or components of the coin packaging apparatus in accordance with the width of a roll of wrapper strip in use.
The coin packaging apparatus of the type under consideration is designed to handle several denominations of coins. Each time coins of a different denomination are to be packaged by the apparatus, therefore, the wrapping and various other mechanisms of the apparatus must be readjusted to suit the diameter or thickness of the coins. Manual readjustment of all such parts or components is highly troublesome and time-consuming, giving rise to the possibility that the coins may not be packaged properly through failure of readjustment of any of the parts.
One of the mechanisms of the coin packaging apparatus that need readjustment involves a pair of crimping hooks which, after a piece of wrapper strip has been wound around the circumference of a stack of coins, will fold or crimp the lateral marginal edges of the wrapper strip over the opposite ends of the coin stack. Since several wrapper rolls of different widths are used interchangeably in accordance with the denomination or thickness of coins to be packaged, the spacing between the crimping hooks must be adjusted to the width of each new wrapper roll in use.
Another part in need of readjustment is a cutter blade designed to cut the wrapper strip to a suitable length as the same is unwound under tension from its roll. The cutter blade usually has a sawtooth cutting edge of generally V-shaped configuration with a projecting apex. The apex of this cutting edge first pierces the wrapper strip extending therepast under tension, and the wrapper strip is then torn apart along the sloping edges on both sides of the apex.
It will therefore be apparent that regardless of the width of the wrapper strip in use, the apex of the V-shaped cutting edge should be located centrally in the transverse direction of the wrapper strip extending therepast along a predetermined path. Otherwise, the wrapper strip would not be severed smoothly, and if severed at all, would have its ends shaped asymmetrically. A package of coins formed by use of such a piece of wrapper strip is unsatisfactory in appearance because one of the asymmetrically shaped ends of the wrapper strip visibly appears on the outside.